Fisherman’s Village festival brings 70 musical acts to Everett

Ryan Crowther and Steven Graham are ready to turn their hometown of Everett into a city of music for a weekend.

The founders of the Everett Music Initiative have worked for the past two years to bring more live music to Everett. Their strategy has focused on connecting local bands to practice together and perform shows, attracting touring artists to the city, and building a reputation and credibility. Since its beginning in 2012, the Everett Music Initiative has successfully organized and marketed more than 40 musical events. The largest undertaking to date, the first Fisherman’s Village Music Festival, is scheduled for Friday and Saturday in downtown Everett.

“If you went to someone in Capitol Hill in Seattle right now and asked them what good things they know about Everett they would probably say, they just secured an airplane, aka the Boeing 777X, and are doing a huge music festival in May and that’s what we’re going for,” said Crowther, 29. “We want people to think there are fun, attractive things going on in Everett, because there are.”

A good 70 acts, including The Moondoggies, Rose Windows, The Grizzled Mighty, The Maldives and Shelby Earl, are booked to perform during the festival, scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. on Friday and at noon on Saturday at four stages downtown.

Everett’s Moondoggies have earned praise from Rolling Stone music critic Austin Scaggs and have released three albums and an EP on Subpop imprint Hardly Art.

Rose Windows released its debut album last year, “The Sun Dogs” with Subpop.

The Grizzled Mighty, Seattle guitarist and vocalist Ryan Granger and drummer Whitney Petty, are likened to The White Strips and have released two albums.

The Maldives, an alt-country band based in Ballard, have performed at Bumbershoot, Sasquatch and South by Southwest music festivals.

And Seattle singer and songwriter Shelby Earl’s cover of Michael Jackson’s “P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)” was featured on a recent episode of ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy.”

About 1,600 people are expected to be at the event each day, Crowther said. He expects more than 1,000 people will be coming from more than 25 miles away.

“The majority of those people will be staying in a hotel which is important to tourism,” Crowther added. “It’s our guess that over half of the people have never stepped in downtown Everett.”

Music will be played throughout both days at four different locations including the Historic Everett Theatre at 2911 Colby Ave. and Kroakers Bar at 3021 Rucker Ave. An outdoor stage will be set up between Hoyt and Rucker Avenues, while more music will be played at the newest Everett Music Initiative venue, The Cannery, 2820 Oakes Ave. Suite C. Admission for all ages is $50 and includes two venues. Admission for 21 and older, good for all four stages, is $65 at www.brownpapertickets.com/event/587601.

Graham, 27, writes the What Radio? community blog on HeraldNet.com. He loves the bands that are performing at the festival and added he is especially looking forward to standing in the back of the crowds and watching everything finally come together.

“It means a lot to see how far we’ve come in a couple of years and see the responses from people who didn’t think it was worth 10 bucks to come see a show in Everett,” Graham said. “It’s going to be pretty amazing to see this happen in my hometown.”

The Fisherman’s Village Music Festival is planned as an annual event, said Crowther, who owns Puget PR, a public relations and marketing company. He believes it will be an overall boost for the city.

“If you think about economic development in Everett you have people that are focused on bringing businesses to Everett and you also have people focused on developing and ensuring a skilled talent base,” he said. “Somebody has to be focusing on how to attract talent to the area and I believe that Everett Music Initiative is bringing credibility to Everett’s name outside of Everett.”

To find out more about the Fisherman’s Village Music Festival, purchase tickets, and view the scheduled lineup, go to www.thefishermansvillage.com.